Buca Yorkville

Last week was just like déjà vu. I got to dine again with Diona, a.k.a. TitaFlips just like old times. I always love having that opportunity as I know I would again have a very good conversation over a very good meal. Buca saw good reviews anywhere I checked, I know this one would be epic too.

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Taking the subway to Yonge and Bloor, Buca was just a few minutes of a walk. It was rather relaxing to take that stroll actually. As I was standing in front of the restaurant, I immediately liked it from the outside. I see the restaurant cozily lighted. It could have looked too cold and too industrial if it weren’t for the the lighting artfully sculpting coziness into the space. There was honesty in the way the windows were from floor to ceiling and that the ceiling was at least 12 feet high. It gave that airiness and privacy to each dining table despite having music in the background.

Diona was just a few minutes behind me and we were then seated to our table with a good view of the open concept kitchen. Once again, to me that is a plus. Seeing how harmonious and fluid the cooks behind the counter are working with each other, it assures me that the kitchen is a well-oiled machine and I would be a recipient of a good meal.

And oh, did we ever eat. That is what I love about Diona. I always have this sensory foodie moments that start with the visual appreciation of beautiful food, then the tentative tastings to figure out what magical ingredients they have added in. For starters we had squid ink dumplings, slivers of tuna and a delicate appetizer of octopus. This was later followed by burrata pizze and a side of the crispiest, sweetest squash dish I ever had the pleasure of tasting. We did not stop there of course as we were curious about the pasta too and we opted for a simple pomodoro.

And just because I am with such a big foodie like me, we wiped off every morsel from each plate. The most fun I had was trying the squid dumplings as they don’t look too pretty. What it doesn’t have aesthetically, it made up in flavour. It was rather hard to beautify something that is innately black. I urge you to overlook that and bite into the delight. It was such a delicious sensation in my mouth – crisp, salty and warmly reassuring. I would come back just for that dish.

The burrata pizze was just as delicious! I was thinking that it would be heavy but we got the pleasant surprise of a light dish as the burrata was light and airy, almost like a sponge, making each bite such a pleasure. The big surprise was the side dish of squash and sweet potato. This dish makes me want to go to my own kitchen and figure out how they made it so crispy on the outside and soft in the inside. All that shreds of parmesan also helped contrasting cheesy saltiness to the squash sweetness.

The funniest part was that we did not stop there. We were constantly giving the kitchen furtive looks and later decided that each pasta dish that we saw leave it was looking so enticing. We ended up ordering the pomodoro spaghetti and that was such a burst of summer to the palette. When we saw how a branzino was presented and deboned table side, we would have ordered that if we were not so full. We could not even make dessert and we just settled for coffee.

Thank you Diona for such a nice meal. Just as I said in the beginning, it was definitely epic!